What do you think I should do? Need opinions!

johnson121810

Okay... here is my problem. Please help!

I started on MFP with 1320 calories to eat. I lost about 7 pounds in 3/4 weeks. I am now at a plateau and haven't lost any weight for about 3 weeks. So, I changed my calories to 1500... still no difference. My BMR says 1625 calories. I work out about 5 times a week and burn an average of 700-900 calories. Should I up my calories? eat my exercise calories? How many calories should I be putting into my body????

My husband keeps telling me that my body will start losing weight again and that my body is noticeably skinner and that I am just gaining muscle. I don't want to gain muscle (I am already a muscular girl), I just want to lose the fat, not gain any more muscle.

Please help! Thank you so much.
Please help me!!!!! I want to start losing the weight!!!!

johnson121810

bump

Spanaval

As a general rule, you should be netting your BMR. Slowly increase your intake to see what happens.

anarod0513

Change up your exercise routines to confuse your body. I didn't think this could work, I was stuck at 118 for months, but as soon I changed my workout routines, guess what.... I'm down to 114!!!!

dmf80

What are you doing to burn 700-900 calories? Hopefully you are not getting this number from the machines at your local gym. Those numbers are inflated greatly for a reason. People want to feel accommplished after a work out. An inflated calories count help you achieve this. I have read several acticles that claim the major fitness chains (X-sport, LA Fitness, Lifetime, etc) can inflate calorie numbers by up to 33%.

With that said, this may be your issue. Don't take my word. Do some research. Ask a personal trainer. They will be able to confirm what I am talking about.

cardbucfan

I can believe the calorie burn-I burn between 600-800 a session depending on the workout but I get the number from my HRM.

I don't think you are eating enough if you aren't eating any of those calories burned back and you are already eating at less than your BMR. Remember, BMR is the absolute minimum your body needs to fuel itself if you laid in bed all day. If you take that BMR and multiply it by your activity level (google it to get the correct numbers but I find MFP to be low for me) that's what you would need to eat to maintain your weight. Depending on how much you need to lose you don't want a huge deficit.

I agree with mixing up your workouts-that's something you should always be doing. But do the math to see how much you should eat. I know we women have had it ingrained in us forever that to lose you have to not eat but it's just not true!!

bcattoes

I had success by eating the calories MFP recommended, including exercise calories. Unless you figured the exercise into your activity level, it only makes sense to eat more if you exercise more.